Professional developmet (staff)

Staff study groups

Project description

The idea is to explore together the themes relating to the tradition of Jesuit Education.

Staff who are interested and free of other commitments meet for 5 or 6 sessions during the course of the school day over a number of weeks.

Through exploring together the tradition of Jesuit education, staff developed a deeper awareness of particular themes and sought to reflect on these in their classroom practice. Most teachers have very little opportunity to discuss their work and even less an opportunity to discuss their faith. These sessions can provide a forum for such an exchange, in a very valuable way.

The approach adopted has been to offer to the teachers short texts that can be read easily between sessions or read together and then to allow the teachers to develop a more intimate feeling and relishing of the matter before them through their own observation and discussions, with the leader running over salient points with brief or summary explanations. It is important then not to rush through the different topics.

Benefits

Members of staff across curricular areas had an informal setting in which to reflect upon themes of Jesuit education. This allowed reflection upon different staff experiences and fostered a sharing of good practice. The overwhelming view of the staff who have taken part was that it was thoroughly worthwhile; they felt they learnt more about the Jesuit tradition, had an opportunity to discuss things in an informal and collaborative context and, indeed, were spurred on to observe one another's lessons and attempt to put particular things into practice in their own. This approach was then adopted also with pastoral staff with a particular emphasis on aspects of pastoral care, welfare and discipline.

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